9.1.1.5 -dalign

With -dalign the compiler is able to generate double-word load/store instructions whenever possible. Programs that do much data motion may benefit significantly when compiled with this option. (It is one of the options selected by -fast.) The double-word instructions are almost twice as fast as the equivalent single word operations.

However, users should be aware that using -dalign (and therefore -fast) may cause problems with some programs that have been coded expecting a specific alignment of data in COMMON blocks. With -dalign, the compiler may add padding to ensure that all double (and quad) precision data (either REAL or COMPLEX) are aligned on double-word boundaries, with the result that:

• COMMON blocks might be larger than expected due to added padding.

• All program units sharing COMMON must be compiled with -dalign if any one of them is compiled with -dalign.

For example, a program that writes data by aliasing an entire COMMON block of mixed data types as a single array might not work properly with -dalign because the block will be larger (due to padding of double and quad precision variables) than the program expects.